In recent years, the rapid growth of the Internet and other computer networks has fueled an equally fantastic growth in the use of computers as everyday communications devices for both individuals and businesses. Such widespread and growing use has led to the generation and accumulation of vast amounts of digital data. This, in turn, has spurred scientists and engineers to develop specialized subsystems, such as storage-area networks, for managing and storing data.
A storage-area network (SAN) is a high-speed subnetwork of shared data-storage devices, such as disk and tape drives. These networks are particularly advantageous not only because they spare other servers in a larger network, such as corporate intranet, from the burden of storing and managing large amounts of data, and thus allow use of these servers for other higher priority uses, but also because they facilitate data consolidation. Consolidation promotes manageability and scalability by for example simplifying backup and restore procedures and facilitating expansion of storage capacity.
Some storage-area networks (SANs) are structured so that an end-user or client-computer can access data on one or more target storage devices through a storage router and a separate Fibre Channel switch. (Fibre Channel generally refers to a serial data-transfer architecture and communications standard developed by a consortium of computer and storage-device manufacturers for use with high-speed mass-storage devices and other peripherals, particularly via optical fiber interconnects.) The Fibre Channel (FC) switch converts data received from the storage router to a FC-compliant protocol, such as FC-AL (Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop) standard, and directs the converted data via high-speed electrical or optical fiber lines to the proper target devices. The FC switch, high-speed lines and related hardware are sometimes called a “fabric.”
One problem that the present inventors have recognized with conventional storage-area networks, such as those that use separate FC switches and storage routers, is that these networks present increased maintenance complexities and costs that discourage their use by many companies and organizations. For example, administrators of these networks may be forced to manually and separately reconfigure the storage router and the FC switch in the event of a system failure. Moreover, the FC switch may be configured by different entities independently of the administrator, making it even more difficult, time-consuming, and costly to perform the restoration.
Accordingly, the present inventors have recognized a need to reduce the cost and complexities associated with maintaining storage-area networks.